Texas Health unit aims to make money on electronic records

Texas Health Resources, an Arlington-based not-for-profit hospital company, will announce Wednesday that it has created a for-profit organization to make money on implementing electronic health records for other hospital systems.

The new organization is called Texas Health Advisory Services. It will operate under the hospital system’s Innovative Technology Services division.

“Other health systems have been coming to us for advice in this area for years,” said Stephen Hanson, Texas Health’s senior executive vice president for system growth.

With a formal organization established, Texas Health can give hospitals more than just introductory advice, said Nanda Lahoud, administrative director of Innovative Technology Solutions at Texas Health.

Texas Health joins a competitive field of technology companies capitalizing on a national push for electronic health records. It will be competing with the likes of Dell Inc.’s information technology consulting division based in Plano.

But the market is plentiful, said Edward Marx, chief information officer at Texas Health. He estimates that only 20 percent of the nation’s hospitals have implemented electronic health records.

Texas Health executives say they have an edge over larger technology companies.

“The key difference in why we’ve been so attractive to many is we actually live and breathe what we’re advising on,” Marx said. In interviews he frequently refers to implementing electronic records as “an art form.”

The hospital system has implemented electronic health records at 13 hospitals since 2006. The company has invested more than $200 million in its electronic health records system, which contains more than 4.7 million patient records.

It has accompanied that implementation with an advertising campaign showing the value of electronic records in real-world situations. One commercial features emergency room doctors fruitlessly peppering a son with questions about his father’s medical history.

Essentially the newly established organization places a formal name to work the hospital system already was doing.

There are no immediate plans to hire. Only one full-time worker has been assigned to the organization. Their responsibility is to find business.

The organization now has five active customers. Marx said there are no revenue expectations or targets to meet.

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